I’m always up for trying new products but the thing about me is that I hate having too much “stuff”. If you know me from Twitter, you’ll know I’m a constant cleaner / sorter-outer and I hate keeping anything unnecessary. I hate having more than what I need (I guess you could say I have a fairly minimalist mindset in that respect!) and my beauty / skincare collection would be gasped at by some beauty bloggers out there! So anything that makes my life easier and isn’t left lying around doing nothing is always a bonus for me. 

I was contacted by Ivy Beauty and asked if I wanted to try one of their products as they’re a new company that are just on the market and they’re sole focus is natural and effective skincare, ensuring they don’t use harmful chemicals or ingredient and relying on Mother Nature to provide us with effective and affordable skincare which also isn’t tested on animals. Sounds like a pretty cool brand, right? I was offered a few of their products to try out but I opted for the Pure Moroccan Argan Oil * – purely because it has more than one use. Which in my books of limited “stuff”, is right up my street!

First impressions

My first impression was, ‘wow that’s a big bottle’, and it is. You get an awful lot for your money considering how little you actually need when applying it (which I later came to find out). So that’s great. The packaging is simple but sleek. Being an all natural product, I like that the bottle kept it’s simplicity. The smell… Right, the smell was quite clearly my least favourite part of this product. I’m not sure if all Argan Oil smells like this – providing it’s natural and hasn’t got any fragrance in it of course – but I wasn’t a fan. Let’s just say, it smelt very natural.

Application

I decided to try it on my hair first as my hair needed a wash anyway. The leaflet that came with it stated it could be used as a sort of mask, for 10-15 minutes before you wash it out and wash your hair as normal so I thought that would be an ideal way to try this product first. It says 1-2 pumps – I personally didn’t think 1-2 was enough, so I ended up using around 6. But upon reflection, this was probably too much. I don’t think I efficiently combed it through my hair with my fingers enough and therefore was left with most of it on my hands, instead of on my hair thinking that I hadn’t put enough on. Doh.

So I think, depending on your hair length and thickness and whether you want to cover the whole head or just the roots, it’s up to you how much but definitely don’t over-do it, like I did! Anyway, I put it on about 3/4 of my hair, scruffed my hair up in a bun and set my timer for 15 minutes before washing it off. I then washed my hair as normal, with my normal products – nothing fancy. Although my hair did feel soft after a wash, I obviously can’t notice any difference after one application however I’m definitely going to be using this before every hair wash (or every other hair wash). It felt like I was giving myself a little pamper and really treating my hair to something good for a change!

I also used it on my skin (just on my arms and legs for now – I haven’t used it on my face yet because I get quite bad breakouts at the moment so I’m not sure how this would affect it) and again, because of the smell, I didn’t want to particularly leave it on and then go out so I compromised by putting a light layer on my skin and then washing it off in the shower then washing as normal. Similarly to how I did with my hair and again, it felt lovely. The leaflet also says you can put a few drops in a bath which I’d be really interested in doing. I love a nice relaxing bath and adding some oils which I know will benefit my skins sounds wonderful!

Final thoughts?

I like this product. Overall, I’m impressed. My knowledge of oils and what to do with them at present isn’t all too great which I think does this particular product a disservice at the moment. However, I know how beneficial they can be and how amazing they are for your skin so it’s something I’m going to keenly pay more attention to going forward. I think this could be an amazing product which promotes so much healthy growth and moisture if used right so I’m hoping I’ve taken the first steps to getting the most out of it! My impressions of this brand are immediately positive; I love their ethics and their vision and their products definitely reflect that.

What are your favourite natural / Vegan or cruelty-free products? Do you have any recommendations? Do you use Argan Oil regularly? If so, how would you recommend using it to get the most out of it? Let me know and let’s discuss!

* Items marked with a (*) were gifted